Evolve Your Marketing Strategies amidst the COVID-19 Crisis
By: Vanessa Anderson Posted on Fri, 07-08-2020
The threat is not over yet, it’s evolving to the next stage. Pandemic is not a case of hit and runs, with its high effect in the society, businesses are going down the lane. Several brands are struggling to survive the flood of virus but a pandemic is just not having it. The dwindling assets and eroding resources is leading to bankruptcy for many businesses.
Things will become tougher. Being a marketer, you need to plan strategies that will help you survive, thrive, and grow out from the pandemic stage. Financial activities will narrow down even further until businesses find their roots again. Pandemic won't last forever, so what are you planning to do post-pandemic?
Reevaluating Brand Strategies
Brands are facing a crucial time since the year begins. To reevaluate brand strategy means to require resources and use of assets at such times does not sound smart. Being extensively careful means you need the right approach within your budget. For instance, if you plan to target audience in a particular foreign market you need to hire marketing translation services to ensure the ad resonates with the target market’s culture. But will it not be costly? Well, you can do your homework and make a list of top service providers, compare the rates, and then choose a suitable one as per your budget. Translation of marketing content including ad copies might be costly but the results it can bring are worth the effort.
With certain concerns kept in mind lets map the marketing strategies that will help you to survive during the crisis:
Realignment of Strategies
The existing marketing strategies will not work (as you must have seen by now). Realignment means modifying the existing strategies to meet the pressing demands of the customers. Brand awareness caters entirely to customers and therefore every strategy should focus on it.
To make things work, you need to switch brands to online channels if you already haven't done it. Get in touch with customers on a personal level. Get them to share their stories, pictures, videos using your product in some way or review the services.
Add video marketing in the mix too. Social distancing will continue even if the threat of pandemic reduces. Make special efforts to keep the audiences engaged and video marketing can be an effective tool for this purpose.
Identify Branding Channels
What is the best possible way to promote your brand amid the pandemic? The brand is best promoted when marketer opts for various channels. In our list following are the most used channels by marketers and audience;
- Ads on social media
- Comments or recommendations on social media
- Reviews from expert bloggers
- New updates on brand pages/stories
- Celebrity endorsements
Brands that are quick to update stories and posts retain their position in the eye of the customers. Add a multilingual page to attract foreign customers too. Since shipments may slow down but will eventually continue, you need a strong customer base. Having influencers on your side works in your favor once you discover which one or more of the above-mentioned brand channels are more productive for your brand. In order to stay top of the mind and become a preferred choice for the audience, you need to stay active and keep them engaged.
Predict Customer Needs
Pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors, it's long enough to make one stressful, face anxiety and depression, and even creates a sense of loneliness. Social distancing is not what our society is wired to. Since your favorite customer is stuck behind the safety of walls, you need to reach out to them.
How will you do that?
It's a game of forecasts! For instance, as schools shut down, parents find it hard to entertain kids at home and so on. Do you know what amazon did? They offered a free stream to entertain, teach, and engage kids while school is out. The major benefit Amazon got is the diversified viewership for the future.
Understand the patterns, what a customer is most likely to buy during the pandemic? It is challenging to sort out their needs, but as lockdown is easing down in majority countries you can offer products and services on sale, discount offers, or QR scan discounts and such. From a B2B point of view, provide software, or translate apps for easy access for employees working from home.
Improvise the Product Offerings
In the coming days, you will see a not so gradual shift in consumer needs. First, the change occurred due to pandemic now it will occur as lockdown eases. Netflix reaches a whole new level of subscription rate than the oil rate! It was indeed history in the making.
The primary focus of customers is to purchase essentials, the bare necessities instead of luxuries with people now being jobless, and using their savings originally planned for retirement, the luxury item is not their priority for now.
A brand needs to focus on the segment of the basic products that fit the lowest chain of Maslow's hierarchy pyramid. Due to limited resources at both ends, act fast and logically. Once the sale stabilizes you can add more products or services gradually.
Get Over the Fear
Pandemic as caused fear in business entities, many brands shut down for good, small business startups dwindled and didn't get to see the sun the next day. If you panic your competitors will take advantage of that fear. First of all, calm down, make a plan, and segment the products according to the target audience. There's a thin line in the urgent sale and a panic sale. You do not want your customer to feel as if you sell out of panic, which will cause suspicion in the customers’ minds.
Take small steps, and plan new marketing strategies, the translation being one of them. The idea is to perpetuate the proactive measures to retain a good audience. With a multilingual website, an app or product description will have a positive effect on your brand's visibility in the long-term. Therefore it will be wise to rely on marketing translation services for an effective sale and it's one of the creative ways to overcome your fear of doom.
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